Adam Gaudette Nominated for the NCAA’s Hobey Baker Award

Vancouver Canucks prospect and 2015 fifth-round pick Adam Gaudette has been nominated for the NCAA’s Hobey Baker Award, presented to the best player in NCAA Division 1 Hockey for his play with Northeastern University.

Adam Gaudette and Dylan Sikura have both been nominated for the prestigious @HobeyBakerAward!

Gaudette, who is in his junior season with Northeastern, has amassed 35 points (17 goals and 18 assists) in 22 games, good for sole possession of first place in NCAA Div. 1 scoring. If you adjust for points per game, Gaudette is still in first place, with a gaudy 1.59 points per game. That scoring has helped Northeastern to a 14-5-3 record and an eighth ranking.

In 100 games in the NCAA, Gaudette’s scored 117 points (55 goals and 62 assists). It’s been a surprising turn given his paltry scoring in the USHL during his draft year, and a credit to both the player and the Canucks scouting and development staff for bucking long odds.

Adding a Hobey Baker Award in what is likely Gaudette’s final university season would be a nice end to this chapter of his story, which, at this rate, probably includes some time in the NHL in the not-so-distant future. The hope is that Gaudette will join the Canucks, perhaps as early as the end of this season even.

"I'd definitely love to play in Vancouver, the team that drafted me. We're all on the same page; my coaches here & the staff in Vancouver. We're going to get through this year and then we'll have time for discussion." pic.twitter.com/I7kyWm87gP

Per the Northeastern press release, fans can vote daily for the Hobey Baker Award. Here’s an explanation of the process, directly from Northeastern’s website…

The selection process for the award is in three parts. First, the head coaches of NCAA Division I schools nominate the top three players in their league and the top three players in the nation. College hockey fans can also vote online at this time—and fan voting can be an important factor in the balloting outcome. Price Waterhouse Coopers tabulates the votes and the top 10 candidates are announced.

Voting then commences for the “Hobey Hat Trick,” which is a narrowing of the field from ten players to three, from which the winner is selected. The primary voting in this part of the process is by the Hobey Baker Memorial Award Selection Committee, a geographically balanced group of 27 individuals representing print and electronic sports media, college hockey coaches and officials, and NHL scouts. Fans may also vote online for their favorite candidate during this phase of the process.

After the three finalists for the award are announced (“Hobey Hat Trick”), the countdown begins toward the announcement of the award winner in a nationally televised ceremony.

So, vote early and often, and let’s see one of the Canucks own go on to win the most prestigious award in NCAA Div. 1 hockey.

36 Comments |

Thats great news! Both for Gaudette and the Canucks. But also for a scouting staff that has, perhaps, finally gone from simply “bucking long odds” to actually recognizing talent and management having confidence in the scouting staff.

Why do you think he is in the AHL next year? I think Gaudette has a good shot at making the big club. He will turn 22 at the start of next season, is 6’1″ and I expect comes to camp at about 190lbs.

With Gagner, Gaunce, Dowd and Chaput being the depth at center conceivable maybe even likely Gaudette rises above that crop. A year in the AHL isn’t necessarily a bad thing just wondering why you would assume that’s where he will play.

I would agree that Gaudette has a shot at making the Canucks. RealPB, IMO, is just being conservative and looking at who is on the roster at the moment and in Utica. If he started in Utica he probably wouldn’t be there that long.

I just didn’t want to overhype him. I think he’s a really good prospect, but not everyone makes the jump to the rigors of the NHL right away, especially given how different college schedules are (major junior is a better approximation of the pro game schedule). That said, Hutton and Stetcher, not just Boeser, made the jump right away so clearly it can be done.

Was watching his highlights he doesn’t look like a great skater but he gets a lot of breakaways. Seems like a smart hockey player Canucks certainly need those. It be nice if Henrik retires and slot this guy in if he’s good enough to play 3c. Bring him along slowly like they originally planned with Horvat.

I like his comment,”We’re all on the same page.”
There is room for Adam on the big team and I look forward to seeing him in blue and green. That should happen towards the end of this season.
It’s hard to believe he was available and drafted in the fifth round.

In retrospect – at the time it made sense. He did not have a great draft season in the USHL.

The fifth round seems to be the magic round for the Canucks – they’ve picked more NHLers out of the fifth round over the past six or seven years than any round but the first – Frank Corrado, Ben Hutton, Gustav Forsling, and Adam Gaudette have all been fifth rounders for the Canucks in recent years.

Forsling has already played 78 games as a 21-year-old in the NHL. Corrado’s a tweener whose career in my opinion was badly derailed by the Leafs dumb waiver games, but that doesn’t make him a bad pick in the fifth round. And I would say that our fifth round has been relatively great overall — Mike Brown was a face puncher but still played over 400 games. And our best 5th rounder remains Bieksa.

Also, Gaudette was our second fifth round pick that year — the first being Carl Neill who only really excelled on the Carl Neills and is now plying his trade in Canadian college hockey. We got the pick from the Rangers for Raphael Diaz who we traded Dale Weisz for. Gillis doesn’t get much credit for this deal but it is one we should thank him for.

Getting a player who plays a single NHL game out of the fifth round is good. It looks like the Canucks picked three NHL regulars and one NHL/AHL tweener out of the fifth round over six years. That’s fantastic.

Gaudette’s stats in the USHL weren’t impressive — 30 points in 50 games (tied for 100th in total points), and no points in the playoffs. Presumably Canucks scouts mostly depended on the eye test to evaluate him, not his scoring.

And the more that NHL teams depend on statistics to assess prospects, the more valuable the eye test becomes to find late picks whose stats poorly reflect their talent.

Assuming Petterson and Gaudette both play centre at the NHL level and both translate their games from the NCAA/SHL effectively, yes, that’s awesome. But one should never count chickens before they’ve hatched. I’ve got no doubt both players will be NHL regulars, but you never know how good players will be until they actually play.

If Gaudette and Petterson both make the team next year, both play C, and are both effective, I’d like to see the team move Sutter as part of a package for help on the back end. Gaunce is an effective defensive centre and can hold down the 4th line role effectively. No sense paying someone over $4 million per to play 12-15 minutes a game.

If Gaudette and Petterson make the team next year, I highly doubt they will play center. Bo will be the first line, Henrik (if he’s back) will be 2nd, and Sutter the third. Dowd/Gaunce will be on 4th. That said, if Gaudette continues to show his moxy (as he did at Canucks camp sitting down Petterson), I can see him moving up. If Jake can figure it out, the idea of him playing with Gaudette and Lind on a rat line that can score is very exciting.

I know Lind puts up a lot of points and gets hyped up on this site a lot. I don’t think many understand his game very well. He is 6’1″ and weighs about 175 lbs. He has a decent shot, good hockey sense, average speed and good puck handling. He has absolutely no physicality to his game, none, absolutely zero. If the puck goes to the corner, Lind goes to the slot or takes a position to block a pass. He will not go to the corner on the forecheck. He has a good stick and wins his share of puck battles along the wall. He is a master at exploiting lesser players in junior. I’m not sure that translates well to the pros.

Lind needs to add 10-15 lbs and play at least a year in Utica before we start pencilling him onto a line. I think it needs to be a scoring line cause the kid just does not bang at all.

While it’s great that Gaudette has the potential to be a Top 6 player like Mike Hoffman and Mark Stone (both found in the 5th/6th round respectively), I think people need to temper their expectations. Coming out of junior, both of those players took a few years in the AHL before becoming solid core players. Gaudette may need a year in Utica before he’s ready to contribute yet some here have already got the Sutter salary dump trade filed with the NHL. Not everyone can pull a Gaudreau or Boeser and dominate straight out of the NCAA.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m very high on Gaudette’s chances, and actually expect to stick with the team as a 4C (possibly with Virtanen on his flank), but I’m fine if he starts and even finishes next year in AHL. There’s zero need to rush anyone, and I expect Green’s attitude will be that Gaudette will need to pry that 4C spot from someone else. Good, solid, patient development.

Great news, the Canucks have another prospect that is looking like the real deal. I give the player and his current coaches all of the credit in this situation. A 149th overall pick potentially winning the Hobey Baker and becoming an NHL star is not an astonishing achievement and teams should not really be patting their scouts on the back. It means that all 30 teams had 4 or 5 opportunities to draft him and didn’t. Kinda like Luc Robitaille being drafted last overall and going on to a Hall of Fame career

Well, I believe there was only about 21 teams in the league back then, so I would think 171 would be pretty much last overall. Assuming I’m right on that 21, there must have been at least 8 rounds back then or my math sucks.

But Benning hasn’t done anything draftwise to get a top grade player, right? All you Benning is a “draft flop” posters? Hey he may still be a bust, but Canucks college draft picks being even just nominated for the Hobey are a rarity. I’d say he stands a great chance of a good NHL career.

I can’t see any where on this thread where anyone said anything negative about Benning. I believe that Benning is head and shoulders ahead of Gillis in terms of scouting and drafting. What my earlier comment was trying to point out was that picks that emerge from later rounds is not necessarily good drafting but more credit to the player and the teams development program. After all if a team thought player x,y or z was going to be a sure fire top 6 player they would grab him in the 1st or 2nd round instead of becoming a long shot in later rounds